Our 2010 MLK project was the collection, refurbishing, and delivery of sturdy wooden chairs for Broad Street Ministry.  For sveral weeks members and friends rounded up chairs from basements, neighborhood streets, and small businesses and on Monday a group gathering in Fellowship Hall to clean them and make some minor repairs.  Those with minivans or SUVs provided the means to get them from SPC to Broad Street Ministry.

Broad Street Ministry is a community of faith supported by the Presbytery of Philadelphia. Located right on Broad Street, BSM is a thriving multi-facted urban ministry that serves the spiritual, physical and emotional needs of many homeless and marginalized  individuals.   BSM's ministries include Sunday evening worship services (our youth groups have participated in some of these!); an overnight "cafe" (supported by our Alternative Christmas Shop) that offers a hot meal and place to stay out of the cold to men, women, and children unable to stay in a traditional shelter; a monthly Wednesday lunch program that connects those who break bread together with members of the business community offering a variety of legal, housing, and health services; and much more.  One of the practical needs of this thriving ministry was for decent chairs!  As they had reported in their December newsletter, "Metal chairs are not part of the vision for our sanctuary. They speak of agencies, formality and uniformity. That's not Broad Street Ministry. So we need to replace all our metal chairs with wooden ones and add a few more to seat the growing number of people worshipping in the sanctuary."

Many thanks to project leader Joe D'Ignazio and all who responded to the call to  help this vision become a reality.  The pictures below will give you an idea of the scene in Fellowship Hall on Monday as we prepared chairs for delivery.

MLK Day of Service